102 Legends SN: 107 Hookman
by InkOnTheWater
Summary: In this episode, Alex and Faith see a news report about Dean's death in St Louis, Missouri and rush to find Sam.  Part two of the series.  See 101 The Mirror Never Lies for part one.
1. IMPORTANT INFORMATION

This fanfic is the second part of a series. It follows on directly from the story laid out in the previous fanfic "The Mirror Never Lies". This episode is set from the end of "Supernatural: Skin" and carries over into the following episode "Supernatural: Hook Man". Everything stays exactly as it was in the TV series, unless the fanfic dictates otherwise.

THIS FANFIC IS PART TWO

By Colin Ramshaw and Beth Hogben

As

InkOnTheWater


	2. On The Road Somewhere

"Police are confident the threat has been eliminated in the town of St. Louis, Missouri. After a young girl, Emily Dickenson, was brutally murdered, police came to the conclusion that a drifter was responsible for her death and a number of others in the local area. They were called to a woman's home earlier this evening, one Rebecca Warren was attacked by the assailant. Dean Winchester was found, left for dead after he tried to attack Rebecca. Police are confident that the late Dean Winchester is responsible."

Alex's face dropped instantly. Opening his laptop he quickly began to surf the internet looking for information. He opened up a page from a newspaper local to St. Louis and began reading. His jaw dropped. Opening his duffel bag, three small cards fell onto the floor. Picking one up he looked at the picture. Dean, smiling, happy... Alive. All that was different now.

"Faith, we need to go for a drive." He was in a state of shock. Death is a given in his line of work, he was used to it. Why was this guy's death different? What made him more important than any of the other people Alex has seen shot, or worse? Was it the reason? Could that be it?

"Why, where are we going?" Faith sidled into the room, half dazed. Alex turned the laptop towards her and let her read for herself. Dean would never murder somebody, surely he wouldn't. And besides, where's Sam? The article didn't mention him anywhere. What the hell happened in that small town to send such a sense of shock and confusion rushing over Alex the way it was? They had to find Sam. They simply had to.

"Sam? It's Alex."

"Oh, it's you! You took our ID, our cards, our supplies. Why the hell are you phoning? Leave something behind?" Sam was angry, understandably. They hadn't exactly left the boys with the best situation. But in a job like ours, it's every man (or woman) for themselves, Alex reasoned. Still, it couldn't be easy for Sam now that Dean was gone.

"We saw the news report about Dean. We want to know if there's anything we can do to help you. We're on our way to St. Louis, where are you?" Alex stayed calm, he knew Sam had every right to be angry. He waited patiently for Sam's response. there was a painfully dry silence. When noise suddenly returned, it shocked Alex.

"Oh, you saw that? There's something I need to explain then. As you get off the freeway on the way to St. Louis there's a petrol station and a little cafe. Meet me there."

"Sam, we just want to say how sorry we are." Alex sat down opposite Sam, Faith sitting next to him. Sam seemed sullen, gently stirring his coffee with a plastic stirrer. The silence was awkward, it hung in the air painfully. Sam just kept staring at the cup in front of him, his eyes lost in the steaming liquid.

"What happened?" Faith put her hand on Sam's, comforting in the simplest way she knew how.

"I don't know, I was visiting an old friend. Rebecca Warren. Her brother's girlfriend was murdered while we were passing through the town, so I suggested we swing by to take a look. Rebecca filled me in, Dean had gone out for the night. I got a phone call, the police. They said they needed to speak to me about Dean. When I came back, Dean was trying to attack Rebecca, I pulled out my gun to defend her. I didn't mean to shoot." A single tear slid down his cheek and into the coffee.

"At least he's in a better place." Alex smiled softly, trying to comfort Sam in the best way he could. Sam nodded gently, he seemed to be taking it on board. He took a sip of the coffee and began to stew in his own thoughts.

"I wouldn't call it 'a better place'. None of the waitresses here are hot." Dean began laughing behind them. Alex's mouth dropped in surprise. Faith, however, reached over the back of her seat and slapped Dean hard across the back of his head.

"You son of a bitch" Dean moaned, rubbing the sore spot on his scalp.


	3. Ankeny, Iowa: Motel Room

Alex was lying on the bed, staring straight up at the ceiling. He was still reeling over the cruel joke Sam played on himself and Faith. Not that Faith was bothered, she saw the funny side. Morbid sense of humour that she has. Alex, however, had no such sense of humor. He could still see the police images in his head. It was one thing to see a dead body, it was quite another to see the dead body of someone who you know. Especially when it was somebody he had stolen from a few days previous.

"Alex, we're hitting the road again." Faith's voice rang out, joyful and happy. She loved life once the sun had gone down. Some people were just strange.

"Where are we going this time?" Alex didn't move, just kept staring at the ceiling above him. His eyes glazed over every groove in the wooden beam above him, following it as it stretched across the ceiling. Faith pulled out a piece of paper with a newspaper heading on it, a printout out from the laptop. She handed it to him, then turned away.

"There's another killing, in the town this time. A young girl. Mutilated body was found in her dorm room this morning." Faith began packing a duffel bag; salt, lighter fluid, iron. Everything they need for the job at hand. Providing it's nice and straight forward this time, Faith groaned silently, I'm not in the mood for another hide-and-seek with a dismembered corpse. Alex sat up.

"I thought we were leaving this one to the boys?" Alex mumbled, putting on his boots. He knew he couldn't win in an argument against Faith. The last time he tried he ended up sitting in a gas station for three hours while she refused to let him in the truck.

"Like they could handle it." Faith chuckled to herself. She had a low opinion of the boys, but Alex seemed to differ. If it wasn't for Sam, Faith wouldn't be standing here right now passing snide comments about him. And if it wasn't for Dean, they'd both have been picked off one by one after Bloody Mary had got to Sam. The boys may be irritating, but they had merit as hunters. They were definitely capable.

"I don't care what excuse you're thinking of Alex, we're going." She threw the duffel bag at him and turned towards the door. She folded her laptop under her arm and made her way out to the truck. "You've got all of... two minutes and then I'm driving off and leaving you here." She called back to him. Alex quickly grabbed his stuff and ran for the door, he knew all too well that Faith had a habit of carrying through on her threats.


	4. Ankeny, Iowa: On The Road

"So bring me up to speed, what's going on in little ol' Ankeny Iowa?" Alex was still half asleep, all the driving around was killing him. Especially when Faith herself seemed to not require sleep.

"Well, it was two days ago really that it started. Lori Sorenson, the local vicar's daughter, was with her boyfriend on 9 mile road." Faith turned the corner slowly, completely focused on the road as well as the details of the case. "He went out to investigate some noises they could hear and left Lori in the car. This is all from Lori's account, remember. Anyway, he went out to investigate when all of a sudden. Poof" She took her hands of the wheel momentarily to make a jazz-hand wave. She laughed.

"Let me guess, hanging upside down above the car. His bloody fingernail scraping on the roof?" Alex smiled to himself, vaguely recalling the urban legends of his childhood. Faith laughed along, a nervous laugh more than anything. Alex turned to look at her. "You're not serious. Surely?"

"I am. He was found, strung up from the girders of the bridge above 9 mile road. His bloody fingernail- blah blah blah" She rounded another corner and began to slow down as she came to a stop sign at the next junction.

"Oh my God. So what's happened today then? More teenagers strung up above cars?" Alex was slightly shocked at the prospect of his childhood legends coming true. Sure, in a job like ours, you expect some of them to be true. But not things like the hook man. Alex shuddered slightly at the name, it had always sent a shiver down his spine.

"What the hell are they doing?" Faith had come to a complete stop outside a house, which Alex assumed to be the university dorm house. He followed her line of sight and could see two figures sneaking around the back of the building. Dean was watching as two girls left the building and walked out toward the ambulance and police officers. Sam was climbing up the side of the building. Faith simply shook her head. "Let's show them how to do this properly."

She parked the car and unclipped her seatbelt. Alex was already out of the truck, sorting through the collection of ID cards trying to find the ones they needed. Walking around to the other side of the vehicle, Alex kept his eyes on the house, watching as Sam and Dean slid into the house through an open window.

"Ready?" Faith asked as soon as she straightened herself up.

"Ready."


	5. Ankeny, Iowa: Lori's Place

Sam got off of Dean and walked silently over to the door of the en suite. He peered around the corner and saw a police officer still in the bedroom. Sam signalled to Dean to wait for a moment, listening intently to the sounds in the other room. Three, two one. Sam gently began to open the door when he heard footsteps coming up the stairs. He pulled the door closed and groaned to himself.

"Right, so this is where it all went down?" The voice was familiar, Dean grimaced when he heard it, instantly recognising the voice within. "Woah, that's a lot of blood." Dean pushed past Sam now, opening the door and making his way into the room. Faith and Alex turned towards him and smiled slyly.

"Dean, nice to see you come out of the closet" Alex winked. Dean's face was a picture, instant confusion and disgust at the same time. Alex chuckled, the joke was well worth the response. Though he is kind of cute, I wouldn't mind if he was gay.

"Dude, just- No!" Dean walked past the pair toward Lori's bed, the one not covered in blood. Faith tried not to look at the crimson pools on the floor, instead focusing on other details in the room, anything she could distract herself with. "Is she alright?" Dean asked, off-hand. Whether he really cared or not, even he couldn't tell. Maybe it was his hunter's instinct, needing to know if she was alright to "have his back" or not. Maybe he really did care. Either way, he shook the feeling off.

"I'll be fine." Faith said sharply. She walked over to the blood soaked sheets and stared at them intently. "So what do we know boys?" Alex assumed she was talking to Dean and Sam, since she rarely included him in the term "boys". It was a running joke that for a man, Alex was more feminine than she was. Dean stood puzzled for a moment, leaving Sam the opportunity to jump in.

"We know Lori was with her dad last night, she came home, got ready for bed. Taylor was still alive at that point. Lori wakes up, blood everywhere and little Taylor no longer breathing." Dean gave his brother a sideways glance. They had only just arrived at the scene, stayed in the en suite until the coast was clear. How the hell does Sam know that much already? Almost as if he had read his mind, Sam continued.

"The wall," he pointed to words crudely scratched into the wall "'Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light?' right out of the hookman legend. I just filled in the blanks, I'm pretty sure I got it close enough to the truth. Right?" Faith nodded slowly. She hadn't turned from the wall at all, just kept staring at the blood seeping out of the scratch marks in the plaster. Morbid much? Dean sniggered slightly, to which Alex shot him a dark look.

"Right, so what now guys? Do we know who this guy is?" Alex looked at Sam when he spoke, trying to ignore Dean and his attitude as much as he could. Even when this guy is silent he's got an attitude, that is going to bug me. Sam nodded.

"We have a pretty good idea who it is, and that symbol at the bottom there has just proved the theory." Sam gestured to a crude carving beneath the words. It was an arrangement of five crosses and obviously seemed familiar to Sam and Dean, who both looked at it with recognition. "Jacob Carnes."


	6. Ankeny, Iowa: The Frat Party

"Man, you've been holding out on me. This college thing is awesome." Dean winked and smiled as a girl walked past him. She smiled back, but nothing more. Alex rolled his eyes and turned to Faith. Sam was now talking to Dean in hushed tones, pulling out newspaper clipping after newspaper clipping. It was all cases and thoeries with these guys, no fun, no thrill-of-the-chase. Faith would not like working with these guys at all.

"Right, so where's this guy buried Faith?" Alex stood directly beside her and whispered almost undetectably. Faith heard every word, in that omniscient way of hers. She stood for a moment watching the boys before turning her head slightly to him.

"Unmarked grave, local graveyard" She gestured toward one side of the room. "About 20 minutes drive that way" Alex pulled his phone out of his pocket. It was late, traffic should be minimal, only thing to deal with was being caught digging up the old preacher. Plus there was the issue of what happens if the ghost attacks while they're too busy digging. People could die.

"We need someone to go and watch the reverend. He's one who is directing Carnes, even if it is subconscious. Lori won't be safe up there tonight." Faith gave Alex one of her trademark looks, the one that says 'we both know that you are doing what I say'. Alex sighed before walking over to Sam and Dean to break the news.

"Guys, we have a plan."

"So why are we going to dig this damn corpse up, instead of those two?" Dean was staring at the road, his voice carrying over the muffled sounds of Black Sabbath coming through the speaker. Alex had been flicking through the duffel bag the boys had thrown in the back of the car and, satisfied with what he found, slid it back into place. He looked at Dean, chuckled at the annoyed grimmace on his face, and replied.

"Because Faith wants to make sure you don't try to hit on Lori instead of protecting her." Alex was enjoying this, the look of irritation and confusion. It was like a child trying to work out why Mommy wouldn't let him have pudding before his main. Cute. Alex turned back to the book in his hands, an interesting read.

"I am a professional, she knows that. Right?" Dean paused, thinking. That confused but determined look spreading across his face. "She does know that." Defiant. The guitar solo of the song breaking ready for the final chorus, Dean begin nodding his head to the bassline, his lips gently forming the words as his eyes darted left and right through the windscreen.

"Sam, why are we just sitting here?" Faith was getting bored, counting the flowers in the church flowerbed only occupied her for so long before she got bored of that too. She turned to look at Sam, almost pleading him for something to do. Part of her was longing for a piercing scream or a spray of blood at a window, anything to break the awkward silences that held the space between them.

"We're here for Lori, just wait until we get the call from Dean." Sam's eyes never moved from the window of the house. Suddenly looking away and grabbing his duffel bag from the floor between his legs, he opened the door and dived out. Faith rolled her eyes, pulling a blade out of it's hiding place against her thigh to check it was there, before pushing it back and getting out of the car. Now where's he gone?

"Sam! What are you doing?" She whispered urgently. If they saw him from their window sitting in their garden, the game was up and they'd have the police called on them. It wouldn't be the first time these boys had been in trouble with the police in this small town from what Faith had overheard, so it wasn't a good idea to have a second run in. She edged her way along the hedgerow, trying to keep an eye on Sam while she moved.

Dean lit the match, holding it above the grave. Looking down at the hours of digging and the amount of salt and lighter fluid now filling the coffin he smiled lightly.

"Goodbye preacher," and dropped the match, the fire blazed and the bones were burned.

"No more Mr. evil ghost." Alex quipped. Dean just glared at him. Yeah, even I admit that the stuff I come out with, is crap.

Another figure was behind him, moving quietly up behind him. Lori. Faith rolled her eyes and stopped moving. She watched, patiently. Eyes darting back and froth between the house and the bench in the garden, she waited until Lori was going to leave. The house of the door opened, her father standing in the threshold. A verbal exchange, angry. The ghost. The blade. Her father dragged off into the house. The screams. The confusion.


	7. Ankeny, Iowa: The Hospital

"Nice job on the bones Alex" Faith hit him as she walked up toward him. She was pissed. Alex took on his defensive look of confusion, genuine confusion for once. She stopped just short of head-butting him in the face and stared. Aggressively.

"What are you talking about? We got them," Alex was calm, but firm. What was she talking about? They'd got him. They'd dug him up. Salt. Fire. Gone. Surely it was over. Alex took a moment to mental discipline himself. If it was over Faith wouldn't have phoned him to meet in the hospital. Things were far from over. At least this time someone had survived.

"Lori's dad. Hook through the shoulder. He'll be fine. Proves we were right though. About Carnes." Faith looked over her shoulder frequently. Through a little window Alex could see Lori talking to her father, whose arm was now encased in protective and absorbent bandages. He looked a complete state. Lori was quite upset, that was clear, but Alex caught an odd glimmer in her eye. He couldn't put his finger on it.

"What's the next step?" He was speaking to Faith, but it wasn't her voice that answered him.

"You must have missed something in the grave." Sam was defiant, certain. Alex didn't like it. He made a childish face at him, then realised what he looked like and stopped. Faith shot him a dangerous look. Alex was in the wrong here, and she was determined to make sure he knew it. Dean stepped in, seemingly from no-where. These brothers had a habit of sneaking up it seemed.

"We burned everything in that grave." Dean snapped across, almost snarling in Faith's direction. Alex flinched slightly, not expecting it at all. They stood for a moment, in silence. Each of them lost in their own private battle of thoughts. Before long, Faith spoke. Her voice was calm, but insistent.

"Alex, can I talk to you for a second?" She shot a look at Dean. "Alone."

"What's up Faith?" Alex asked, once out of earshot of their accomplices. Faith lowered her guard slightly, letting some semblance of true emotion enter her eyes. Longing. Her voice came out soft and wavering slightly.

"Do you have any idea how hard last night was for me? Last night was almost breaking point for me. We need to wrap this up and move on. Now." She was very determined. Alex put a hand on her shoulder, gently stroking the fabric of her top with his thumb. Her expression softened slightly. "Look, we can't wait much longer. These guys are really starting to get to me now." Alex looked over his shoulder to where Dean was getting a verbal beating from his brother.

"Really? I kinda like them." He smiled to himself. Faith caught it and jabbed him in the ribs, playfully.

"Yeah, I bet you do." She laughed to herself before walking back over to the brothers. She kept grinning at Alex until she was almost at her destination. She turned around, grin fading and regained her 'business' composure. Even from the distance he was at, Alex could hear the sharp tone in the orders issuing from her lips.

"Hey guys, I'm thinking a bar is in order. Any calls in agreement?" Alex moved in to the boys' rescue. They quickly chorused their aggreement before walking off, leaving Faith trailing in the middle of a sentence.

"Sam, you need to- Where do you guys think you're going?" She watched them down the corridor but did not move.

"Bar," was all she heard of Alex's voice as the door swung closed behind them.


	8. Ankeny, Iowa: A Bar

Dean knocked back the last of his drink and grunted to himself. Sam, seeming to share his brother's unspoken sentiments, sighed softly. Looking across the table at his recent companions, he asked.

"What now then? What did we miss?"

"We didn't miss anything, I burned everything in that grave." There was a sharp quality to Dean's voice.

"Salt. Lighter fluid. Fire. Gone." Faith didn't look up as Alex spoke, keeping her eyes on the drink in her hand. A vodka coke, with a splash of blackcurrant. An awkward silence hung in the air, punctuated every so often by the droning voice of some modern flash-in-the-pan pop star blaring over the radio behind the bar.

"Well, you missed something. Hookman was far from gone last night."

"We didn't miss anything Faith, everything was burned." Alex felt bad about snapping at her, but it didn't last too long.

"Everything? Did you get the hook?" There was a pause. Dean and Alex looked at each other, sharing a look of realisation.

"The hook?" Dean was questioning. It was obvious to Alex that Dean wasn't sure if the hook had been in the grave or not. Sam, seeming to miss the real reason for his questioning, spoke up.

"Well yeah, the hook was the murder weapon, could be the source of his power." Alex rolled his eyes very slightly to himself, inperceptable to anyone there. Except Faith.

"Don't be a smart-ass Alex, just answer me: did you get it?"

"I don't know. Maybe not." He knocked back a mouthful of cider.

The library was empty when they settled themselves down at a table. Faith looked irritated, which seemed par for the course. Sam gave her a quzzical look, one of his 'is everything alright?' eyebrow raises. Faith shrugged a little.

"Any reason we can't use the computers?"

"Records from this far back are rarely digitzed, we'll have to sift through it all by hand."

"What are we looking for exactly?"

"What the prison did with Carne's hook after he was executed. There should be a record of it somewhere." Dean slammed a box of records down on the table as he spoke. Flipping it open he threw a stack of folders in the direction of the three people in front of him. "Dig in kids."

It was about three hours later that one of the spoke again. Alex looked up fromt he folder he was reading and cleared his throat.

"Got one here." He span the page round to Sam.

"Carnes, Jacob. Upon execution, all personal effects are to be returned to the prisoners house of worship." Sam sat back looking a little more pleased.

"Not done yet Sammy, gotta find out what the church did with the hook. I doubt they'd leave a blood stained silver hook lying around a house of worship." Dean walked off with the first box, only to return a few moments later with another. "Church records. Let's keep going guys."

It wasn't too long later when Sam looked up from the file he was holding and spoke again. "Here we go. Received: Silver handled hook from state penitentiary. Reforged." He dropped the file. "They melted it down, made it into something else."

"Well, that's problematic." Faith moaned dryly.


	9. Ankeny, Iowa: The Church

As the car pulled in slowly to the driveway of the church, Alex pulled just as slowly on the dagger strapped to his belt. Faith shot him a glance out of the corner of her eye. A glance that Alex hadn't seen for a while. She trusted these hunters. _Not sure why, but I've been with her long enough to trust _her_ instincts._ He gently slid the blade back into its sheath and sighed. No matter how long he'd been with her, every so often she did something that threw him completely off balance.

They closed the car doors softly, the way they always did. Alex was pretty sure Faith would have no problem causing damage to him equal to anything he caused to her precious vehicle. Their eyes met across the roof, determined. It was all business now. Alex turned to his right and saw the Winchester's exchanging words. They were too far away for him to hear anything, but one glance at Faith showed she was listening intently to their hushed words.

"Go with Dean, I'll follow Sam." No questioning her when she had _that_ tone in her voice. He turned back toward the brothers and watched as they parted. Sam heading to the house, Dean to the church. Alex took a moment to check his knife was where he left it, then looked up. Faith had already caught up with Sam and was opening the front door. Dean had walked through the door to the church and was out of sight. Alex started to walk toward the building when something caught his eye. Movement.

A shape was making it's way toward the church, following Dean. Careful to soften his footfalls, Alex pressed forward. His feet were barely audible as he edged closer to the figure ahead of him. His fingers curled around the hilt of the blade at his waist, pulling ever so slightly at the leather grip. The metal slid effortlessly from its rest, glinting in the moonlight. His fingers tightened, ready for his next move. Ready for that moment. But then the figure stretched out a hand, grasping the handle to the church door. He faltered. The face turned toward him, caught in the moonlight. A face he recognised.


	10. Ankeny, Iowa: The Church 2

Lori was sitting in a pue by herself. Head down, hands clasped before her. Alex was kind enough not to startle the poor girl and dragged his feet a little on the floor as he walked. She heard it and turned toward him.

"Who are you?" Her voice cracked slightly as she spoke, and in the moonlight filtering in through one of the windows Alex could see the tears glistening on her cheeks.

"I'm a friend of Sam's. Is everything alright Lori?" He'd reached her by now and squatted low beside her, looking her directly in the eye. She turned away from him, her eyes to the parapet at the far end of the church. A noise from behind him made his head snap to the back of the room, his hand dropping instinctively to the blade now resting in its sheath again.

The faces of Sam and Faith appeared from a small doorway at the back of the church. The figure of Dean slowly followed them as they walked toward where Alex was. Alex turned back to Lori, his expression softening as fresh tears rolled across her face.

"I understand now. God was punishing them. I've read in the bible about avenging angels. That's what this is." Her hold over her emotions began to break as her hands moved up to cover her face. A light, but cold wind quickly shot through the church, the candles over to Alex's left all but blowing out. A hand reached out over Alex's shoulder, grasping Lori tight as Sam's voice echoed all their sentiments.

"Trust me, this guy... he's no angel." His hand touched her shoulder affectionately, but she turned away from him. Tears took over her again. She sniffed, regained some composure and tried to explain.

"No, I understand now, they didn't deserve to be punished. I do." She paused for a second, took a deep breath. "I killed Rich, Taylor too. I nearly killed my father." A sound caught Faith's attention. She turned to the back of the church. A flicker of a shape, nothing discernible, but she knew instantly what it was. She snapped back to the group.

"Dean, go check the fire. Sam, get Lori out of here. Me and Alex'll hold him off." Nobody moved. Alex stood up, pulling his smooth iron blade up to his chest, ready. Dean and Sam just looked at her. A smash from the front of the church made them all look over. The window was broken, and through it they could make out the figure of a tall man, with a silver hook glinting in the moonlight.


End file.
